Method and apparatus for accessing a wide area network

ABSTRACT

A voice web browser system includes a telephone, an access system coupled to a TCP/IP network, a telephone system coupling the telephone to the access system, and a speech-to-text system for “reading” text that had been sent over the TCP/IP network to the telephone user. Preferably, the access system receives TCP/IP packets from web pages accessible over the TCP/IP network and parses the HTML code of the web pages into text and non-text portions, such that the text portion can be read to the telephone user. A computer implemented process for obtaining web page information over a TCP/IP network includes implementing a connection of a telephone user to an access system that is coupled to a TCP/IP network, detecting a selection of at least one navigation command by the telephone user to access a web page accessible over the TCP/IP network, and navigating over the TCP/IP network to the web page in response to the navigation command, resulting in a verbal communication of at least some information derivable from the web page to the telephone user. A method for retrieving e-mail that was sent over a TCP/IP network includes calling from a user telephone to an access computer coupled to a TCP/IP network, providing user identification to the access computer, retrieving e-mail via the access computer that was sent over the TCP/IP network and addressed to the user, and reading the e-mail to the user of the user telephone utilizing a text-to-speech system.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patentapplication No. 60/016,680 filed May 1, 1996, the disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference, and U.S. provisional patentapplication No.60/016,873 filed May 6, 1996, the disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference. This application is related to U.S.patent application No. 08/847,816, filed concurrently with thisapplication, and since abandoned, the disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates generally to computer networks and, moreparticularly to wide area networks such as the Internet.

BACKGROUND ART

The origins of the Internet date back several decades to a U.S.government sponsored military/educational/business wide area network(WAN) that was designed to remain operational even in the event of thecatastrophe, e.g. a major earthquake or a nuclear war. To accomplishthis goal, robust protocols and systems were developed which allowed ageographically distributed collection of computer systems to beconnected as a WAN such that the loss of a particular computer, or groupof computers, would not preclude the continued communication among theremaining computers.

While the use of the Internet has been prevalent for many years now, itsuse has been limited by the arcane and difficult commands required toaccess the various computers on the network. To address this problem, aprotocol known as the “World Wide Web” or “WWW” was developed to providean easier and more user-friendly interface for the Internet. With theWorld Wide Web an entity having a domain name creates a “web page” whichprovides information and, to a limited degree, some interaction with theentity's “web site.”

A computer user can “browse”, i.e. navigate around, the WWW by utilizinga suitable web browser and an Internet service provider. For example,UUNET, America Online, and Global Village all provide Internet access.Currently, the most popular web browser, known as the Netscape®Navigator® is made by Netscape Corporation of Mountain View, Calif. Theweb browser allows a user to specify or search for a web page on theWWW, and then retrieves and displays the home page of the desired webpage on the user's computer screen.

While the Internet, in general, and the World Wide Web, in particular,are extremely popular, the computer apparatus typically used to accessthe services is quite expensive. For example, a contemporary Pentium® orMacintosh® computer system capable of running state-of-the-art webbrowsers costs many thousands of dollars. There are many potential usersof the World Wide Web and other Internet services who simply do not wishto pay that much for access to those services.

To partially address the cost problem, at least one company hasannounced a “Web Appliance” which permits web browsing when coupled toeither a television receiver or to a computer monitor. Moreparticularly, Japan Computer Corporation, USA (JCC) announced in a newsrelease entitled “JCC Announces ‘Web Toaster’ and ‘Web Copier’Home/Office Universal Internet Access Devices” on Feb. 20, 1996 that theiBOX Communicator series would be demonstrated at the Email World, WebWorld, and Internet Expo shows at the San Jose Convention Center on Feb.20-21, 1996. However, both the Web Toaster and the Web Copier still costmany hundreds of dollars, and must be used with other expensiveequipment such as a television receiver or video monitor. Therefore, auser must still invest in hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars worthof hardware and software in order to access the World Wide Web and otherInternet services when using a Web Appliance.

In a news release dated Mar. 4, 1996, downloaded from the WWW on May 1,1996, NetPhonic Communications, Inc. announced “Web-On-Call VoiceBrowser” which reportedly will be able to access certain Web documentswith a touch-tone telephone, cellular telephone, or facsimile machine.The browser reportedly uses text-to-speech technology that can play backWeb documents over the telephone. It is also said to “support documentsretrieved via fax, e-mail and postal mail service.” The Web-On-CallVoice Browser was said to be available in “mid-1996.” The news releasereported that “NetPhonic Communications will be demonstratingWeb-On-Call Voice Browser in Booth #2027 at Computer Telephony Expo 96at the LA Convention Center in Los Angeles Mar. 12-14, 1996.”

A reading of the NetPhonic materials, downloaded from the WWW, reveals adatabase management system that runs on a web server. More specifically,the software

-   -   “turns a Web document database into a ‘Unified Information        Store’ that serves as the single repository of information to be        distributed over the Internet, phone connection, wireless        delivery, fax transmission or postal mail system. A Web server        then becomes a paradigm-independent unified server that can        supply information to telephone callers and e-mail users as well        as Web browser users — all from one low-maintenance database.”

As is evident from the foregoing, the NetPhonic Web-On-Call VoiceBrowser therefore allows a telephone user to call-in to a web site andto access data stored in the ‘Unified Information Store’, where thatinformation is also available through the WWW. Therefore, the NetPhonicsoftware would not appear to be a true web browser, in that it does notappear to permit a telephone user to access any web page on the WWW. TheNetPhonic software is, in essence, a web server manager, in that itcreates a database dedicated to a particular web server and allowstelephone and other access to that web server's database. Furthermore,the NetPhonic software does not permit telephone users to create theirown web pages, or perform certain other common Internet functions.

In consequence, heretofore it was necessary for a user to purchase,rent, lease or borrow expensive computer equipment, and learn how to useit properly, in order to access and make use of the many capabilities ofthe Internet. The resultant cost and technical sophistication barriersexcluded millions of users from accessing the WWW and other Internetfeatures such as electronic mail (e-mail), electronic publishing,electronic news services, etc.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The present invention uses an ordinary touch-tone telephone to provideaccess to many of the features of the Internet, including e-mail, theability to “cruise” the World Wide Web, and the ability to create andedit web pages. Since virtually everyone has access to a telephone(which can cost as little as $15-$20 to purchase), the many resources ofthe Internet are much more universally accessible due to of the methods,apparatus and systems of the present invention.

Briefly, the invention includes an Internet Interface Computer coupledto one or more telephone lines, and an Internet Server coupling theInternet Interface Computer to an Internet Service Provider.Alternatively, the Internet Interface Computer and the Internet Servercan be provided as a single computer system. Still more alternatively,the Internet Interface Computer, Internet Server, and Internet ServiceProvider can be provided as a single computer system. The incomingtelephone lines can be normal toll telephone lines, 1-800-telephonelines, 1-900-telephone lines, 1-976-telephone lines, or any other typeof analog or digital telephone line supported by the local telephonesystem.

The Internet Interface Computer serves as an interface between audio(e.g. voice and DTMF) communication with a telephone and digitalcommunication with an Internet Server. In particular, the InternetInterface Computer provides text-to-speech capabilities which allowstext derived from TCP/IP packets that were received via the Internet tobe “read” to a telephone user. The Internet Interface Computer is alsoresponsive to DTMF tones of the telephone when a user of the telephonepresses telephone buttons. One embodiment of the Internet InterfaceComputer also provides speech recognition to convert spoken commands ofthe telephone user to a format that can be understood by the InternetInterface Computer.

Preferably, the Internet Interface Computer waits in an “event loop” fora telephone user to “call-in” to the service. Once a call has beendetected, the Internet Interface Computer “picks-up” the phone line and“reads” a series of options to the telephone user. By “read”, “speak”,and the like it is meant herein that the computer uses text-to-speechsoftware to convert machine-readable text stored in its memory to aspoken (audio) output. The Internet Interface Computer then enters anevent loop waiting for a response from the telephone user. This responsecan take the form of a dual-tone, multi-frequency (“DTMF”) signal madeby pressing a key on the touch-tone pad of telephone, or can be thespoken command of the telephone user. Such commands include creating aWorld Wide Web (“WWW”) page, editing a WWW page, accessing a WWW page,to “cruising” or “browsing” the Internet, or to sending electronic mail(“e-mail”) to a designated address on the Internet. The InternetInterface Computer is capable of handling multiple telephone input linessimultaneously, thereby providing simultaneous access to the Internet bya number of telephone users.

By using the apparatus and processes of the present invention, atelephone user has audio access to the World Wide Web, Internet e-mail,and other Internet services. For example, a telephone user can sendvoice mail and e-mail to other Internet users, can receive voice mailand e-mail from other Internet users, can create an “audio” web pagewhich can be accessed by anyone having a web browser, can “cruise” or“browse” on the World Wide Web by having the Internet Interface Computerconvert the text of web pages to a synthesized reading of the text, canhave pre-arranged telephone conversations with other Internet users,etc. The apparatus of the present invention can be accessed from anytype of telephone, including home telephones, business telephones, paytelephones, cellular telephones, air telephones, marine telephones, etc.This provides inexpensive and nearly universal access to the Internetand to the World Wide Web.

In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, a caller'stelephone number is used as an identification of the identity of thatcaller. This permits the apparatus of the present invention toautomatically recognize a user from the “caller-ID” provided by manytelephone systems. Alternatively, a user can enter their telephonenumber to provide a caller-ID. If multiple users use the same telephonenumber, extensions can be provided to identify a particular individual.In any case, a password (“keyword”) is preferably used to confirm theidentity of the user.

The precise implementations of the systems, methods, and apparatus ofthe present invention are dependent upon the business model that ischosen. For example, if a centralized 1-900 number is used as the entryto the Internet Interface Computer, allowing country-widetoll-plus-service-charge access to the computer, users across thecountry are automatically billed by their local telephone company foraccess to the service. If 1-976 numbers (which are similar to 1-900number but which are regional in nature) are used, then local “feederservers” are preferably used to access a database of a “master server.”If regular toll-lines are used (where the telephone user is charged onlyfor the telephone tolls), the use of “feeder servers” and a “masterserver” is again preferable. With regular toll-lines, the presentinvention preferably takes a two-tier model, where a first-tier ofservice allows Internet browsing and is supported by the sale of audiocommercials “narrowcast” (“read”) to the telephone user, and where asecond-tier of service that allows for the creation of web pages, theuse of voice-mail and e-mail, and is supported by monthly telephone userpayments.

Major advantages of the present invention therefore include nearlyuniversal access to the Internet and World Wide Web at a relatively lowcost. For example, virtually every person can, by using a telephone, addtheir own web page to the World Wide Web. Furthermore, anyone with atelephone will be able to receive Internet e-mail. In addition, users ofthe system will be able to communicate verbally with other users at,potentially, a fraction of the cost of normal telephone charges.

These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparentupon reading the following detailed descriptions and studying thevarious figures of the drawings.

BRIEF DISCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block-diagram of a system in accordance with the presentinvention for accessing a Wide Area Network (WAN) such as the Internet;

FIG. 2 is a block-diagram of an Internet Interface Computer of FIG. 1 inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow-diagram of a method for accessing a Wide Area Network(WAN) such as the Internet in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a list illustrating the “Display/Speak Options” step of FIG.3;

FIG. 5 is a flow-diagram illustrating the “Create WWW Page” step of FIG.3;

FIG. 6 is a flow-diagram of the “Edit WWW Page” step of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 a illustrates a sample “Voice Web Page” created by the processesof FIGS. 5 and 6;

FIG. 7 is a flow-diagram of the “Enter WWW Page” and “Access ServerProvider WWW Page” steps of FIG. 3;

FIG. 8 is a flow-diagram of the “Send E-mail” step of FIG. 3;

FIG. 9 is a representation of a web page in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 10 is a flow-diagram illustrating an alternate embodiment 56′ forthe “DISPLAY/SPEAK OPTIONS” step 56 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 11 is a flow-diagram of an advertisement player process of thepresent invention;

FIG. 12 is a conceptual diagram of a Feeder Server/Master Server systemof the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a flow-diagram of a server process running on the feederserver of FIG. 12;

FIGS. 14 a and 14 b illustrate a process in accordance with the “JUMP TOSPIFFYTALK HOME PAGE” step of FIG. 13; and

FIG. 15 illustrates a process in accordance with the “JUMP TO SPIFFYTALKCALLER ID PAGE” step of FIG. 13.

FIG. 16 illustrates a method of the converter of FIG. 8 a;

FIG. 16 a illustrates a QuickTime movie file according to an embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 17 illustrates a process of the plug-in, under the control of theplayer of FIG. 8 a;

FIG. 18 illustrates the operation “Process User Command” of FIG. 17 ingreater detail; and

FIG. 19 illustrates a process running on the master server of FIG. 12.

BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

In FIG. 1, a system 10 illustrating a method and apparatus for accessinga Wide Area Network such as the Internet is illustrated in block-diagramform. The system 10 includes a touch-tone telephone 12, a telephonesystem 14, a Telephone-to-Internet access system 16, and the Internet18.

As noted, the Internet is one form of a wide area network (WAN). Whenaccessing the Internet via the World Wide Web (WWW) protocol, data issent in the form of TCP/IP packets. The Internet is therefore oneinstance of a TCP/IP network including a number of nodes, as describedpreviously. Computer systems coupled to, thereby becoming part of, theTCP/IP network “host” web pages comprising HTML code that can betransmitted via TCP/IP packets over the TCP/IP network. PrivateIntranets (i.e. private networks utilizing TCP/IP protocols) are otherinstances of TCP/IP networks. A preferred embodiment of the presentinvention operates in conjunction with TCP/IP networks, as described.

The telephone 12 can be an ordinary touch-tone telephone. Alternatively,the telephone can be any electronic device emulating the functionalityof a telephone, such as a personal computer. In addition, other forms oftelephones, including rotary dial telephones, direct-connect (i.e.“dial-less”) telephones, etc. can be used. The telephone 12 is connectedto the Telephone-to-Internet access system 16 by a telephone system 14.The telephone system 14 is illustrated schematically as a land-linesystem having telephone wires 20 supported by telephone poles 22 anddirected by one or more switch offices 24. Of course, this is a highlystylized representation of a telephone system 14 which typically alsoincludes multi-level switching stations, relays, microwave links, fiberoptic links, satellite communications, underground wire systems, etc. Itis therefore intended that this representation of a telephone system 14represents a telephone such as it is typically provided by public andprivate utilities.

A Telephone-to-Internet access system 16 of the present inventionincludes an Internet Interface Computer 26 and an Internet Server 28. Itshould be noted that the functionality of the Internet InterfaceComputer 26 and Internet Server 28 can be provided on two or morestand-alone computer systems, or may be integrated on a single computersystem. For example, the Internet Interface Computer 26 can be apersonal computer (PC) such as an Intel Corporation Pentium®-basedcomputer system, while the Internet Server 28 can be a UNIX®-basedsystem available from such companies as Silicon Graphics, Inc., SunMicrosystems, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, etc. Alternatively, asingle, powerful computer system running, for example, Microsoft WindowsNT can provide the functionality of both the Internet Interface Computer26 and the Internet Server 28.

For the purpose of discussion herein, it will be assumed that theInternet Interface Computer 26 is preferably a Pentium-class personalcomputer system operating under the Windows 95 or Windows NT operatingsystems, or a Power-PC Macintosh computer. The Internet Server 28 willbe assumed to be preferably a UNIX-based system running acommercially-available Internet and World Wide Web Server softwarepackage on, preferably, a Silicon Graphics UNIX workstation. TheInternet Interface Computer 26 is preferably coupled to the InternetServer 28 by an Ethernet® 3connection 30.

As noted in FIG. 1, a number N of telephone lines can be handled by theTelephone-to-Internet access system 16. These telephone lines can bestandard telephone (“toll”) lines, ISDN telephone lines, T1 telephonelines, 1-800 telephone lines, 1-900 telephone lines, 1-976 telephoneslines, etc. In general, a telephone line 20 connected to theTelephone-to-Internet access system 16 can be any form of telephone lineor telephone communication link supported by the telephone system 14.For the purposes of this invention, the important criteria is that auser can access the system 16 with a telephone 12, not the manner inwhich the user is connected to the system 16. The manner of connectioncan be important to the business model for commercializing theinvention, however, e.g. whether the telephone line is toll-free, a tollcharge, a 1-900 number, etc., as discussed previously.

The Internet 18 is shown in a schematic form to have a number of “nodes”32, comprising computer systems such as routers, switches, etc. InternetServer 28 is coupled to Internet Service Provider node 32 a to provideaccess to the rest of the Internet 18. It should be noted that thefunctionality of the Internet Service Provider node 32 a can beintegrated with the Internet Server 28 and/or the Internet InterfaceComputer 26.

In general, there is a hierarchy of Internet Service Providers (or“hosts”) commercially available depending upon the bandwidth ofcommunication desired between the System 16 and the Internet 18. Forexample, if a single “b” channel or a double “b” channel of an ISDNtelephone line is used as the connection 34 between the Internet Server28 and the Internet Service Provider node 32 a, a relatively low-orderInternet Service Provider node 32 a can be used. A single ISDN “b”channel carries a theoretical 64 kilobits of information per second(effectively about 56 kilobits/second), and a dual “b” channel ISDN linecarries a theoretical 128 kilobits/second (effectively about 112kilobits/second). Alternatively, if a Tl line was used as the connection34, a theoretical 1.5 megabits of information per second can be carriedand a higher-order Internet Service Provider node can be used. Suchconnections 34 between an Internet Server 28 and an Internet ServiceProvider node 32 a are commercially available and are typically handledby the Internet Service Provider.

In FIG. 2, an Internet Interface Computer 26 is illustrated inblock-diagram form. The Internet Interface Computer 26 is preferably apersonal computer, such as a Pentium-class computer system availablefrom a variety of manufacturers. More particularly, computer 26 includesa CPU 36 coupled to a high speed (“memory”) bus 38 and to a slowerinput/output (“I/O”) bus 39 with interfacing logic, as it is well-knownto those skilled in the art. Random access memory (RAM) 40 and read onlymemory (ROM) 42 are typically coupled to the memory bus 38 although, insome instances, RAM 40 and ROM 42 may be coupled, instead, to the lowerspeed I/O bus 39.

The CPU 36 is preferably a Pentium-class microprocessor, as mentionedbefore. Typically, the CPU 36 is combined with a commercially available“chip set ” to control the buses 38 and 39, the memories 40 and 42, etc.as it is well-known to those skilled in the art. The RAM 40 serves astemporary or “scratch pad ” memory, and ROM 42 includes the basicinput/output system (BIOS) and other “firmware” for the computer system26.

A variety of I/O devices are coupled to the CPU 36 by the I/O bus 39.For example, disk storage 44 is preferably coupled to the I/O bus 39 toprovide a non-volatile read/write memory storage for the computer system26. Disk storage 44 can be a hard disk drive, a floppy disk drive havingremovable floppy disks, or the like. Also coupled to the I/O 39 are anumber of telephone line interfaces 46 which are coupled telephone lines20. In this instance, there are N telephone interfaces 46 to couple to Ntelephone lines 20. Also, coupled to the I/O bus 39 is an Ethernetinterface 48 which is coupled by an Ethernet link 30 to the InternetServer 28.

As mentioned previously, computer systems 26 are commercially availableand their operation is well-known to those skilled in the art. Likewise,telephone interfaces 46 are commercially available, as are Ethernetinterfaces 48. Therefore, the construction and use of a computer system26, in accordance with the block diagram of FIG. 2 is well-known tothose skilled in the art.

In FIG. 3, a process 50 for accessing a wide area network, such as theInternet, is shown in the form of a flow diagram. This process 50 is acomputer-implemented process, preferably running on the InternetInterface Computer 26 of FIG. 2. More particularly, a computer programencoding the process 50 can be stored on the disk storage 44 (oneexample of a “computer readable media”), within RAM 40 (another exampleof a “computer readable media”), and can be executed by the CPU 36.

In FIG. 3, the process 50 begins at 52 and, in a step 54, it isdetermined if there is a user call-in. If not, the step 54 goes into a“event loop” until a user does call-in. A “call-in” is detected by atelephone interface card 46 which puts a signal or “interrupt” on theI/O bus 39 that can be detected by the CPU 36 executing the process 50of the present invention. If a user call-in is detected in step 54, astep 56 displays/speaks the options available. If a telephone 12 isbeing used to access the Internet Interface Computer 26, the options arespoken (i.e. there is verbal communication to the user of the telephone)since most telephones do not have display options. If, however, thetelephone 12 is provided with a display (such as a LCD flat paneldisplay), the options can also be visually displayed. Next, a step 58waits for a response from the telephone user. If there is no response, astep 58 goes into an event loop. There preferably is a “time-out” (notshown, but well known to those skilled in the art) which takes theprocess 50 out of the event loop of step 58 if the user has notresponded within a pre-determined period of time. If there is a responsefrom the telephone user, the step 58 will branch accordingly.

The step 58 can determine if there is a response in several differentways. A preferred method for detecting a response is to detect adual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signal sent by the telephone 12 whenthe user presses one or more of the touch-tone keys of the telephonekeypad. For example, pressing the “1” key will produce a first DTMFtone, and pressing the “8”key will produce another DTMF tone. In thisway, the telephone user can respond in step 56 to a “menu” of optionsprovided by the process 50. Alternatively, the response can be spoken bythe telephone user. This requires voice recognition technology, which isquite effective if the vocabulary of the voice recognizer is small. Forexample, a voice recognition system which recognizes the numbers 0 -9,yes, no, and perhaps a few dozen other words is relatively inexpensiveand tends to be quite accurate. For voice recognition systems with largevocabularies, the accuracy level tends to drop and the cost tends toincrease. However, the costs of voice recognition systems arecontinuously decreasing and the capabilities of such systems arecontinuously increasing, which makes the voice recognition optionincreasingly attractive. Therefore, a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention utilizes voice inputs from the user of the telephone12 to enter information and commands to the Internet Interface Computer26.

If step 58 detects a response, process 50 branches appropriately. Forexample, if the response is “Create WWW Page”, process control branchesto a step 60 where a WWW page is created and then to a step 62 where theWWW page is edited. Next, a decision step 64 determines whether the useris done and, if so, process control branches to step 54 to await anotheruser call-in. If the telephone user is not done, step 64 branches to astep 56 where the options are again provided to the user.

If the response detected by step 58 is “Access WWW Page” or “Cruise”(“Browse”) the Internet, there is an appropriate branch to an InternetBrowser (“WWW browser”) 66. More particularly, if the response is“Access WWW Page”, the user enters their own WWW home page in a step 68.When the user leaves their home page, process control is returned tostep 64. Alternatively, if the response detected by step 58 is “Cruisethe Internet”, a service provider WWW home page (for example) isaccessed in a step 70. When the user leaves the service provider WWWhome page, process control is returned to step 64. If the responsedetected by step 58 is “send e-mail”, a step 72 sends the e-mail andprocess control is turned over to step 64. Finally, if the response is“receive e-mail”, a step 73 verifies the identity of the telephone user,and either plays a voice mail message to the telephone user or “read” ane-mail message to the telephone user, preferably utilizingtext-to-speech technology. The display/speak option step 56, and steps60, 62, 66, and 68-73 will be discussed in greater detail subsequently.

It is therefore clear from the forgoing, that a computer implementedprocess of the present invention first implements the connection of atelephone user to an access system that is coupled to a TCP/IP network.As explained previously, this “implementing a connection” can involvethe telephone user calling in to the access system via the telephonesystem or by some other communication channel. However, the accesssystem can also initiate the call to the telephone user. Next, there istypically some form of verbal communication with the telephone user inthe form of a greeting or the like, although such verbal communicationis optional. The access system then detect the selection of one or morenavigation commands by the telephone user via DTMF signals, voicecommand, etc., in order to access a desired web page over the TCP/IPnetwork. The access system then navigates over the TCP/IP network to theweb page, and then makes a verbal communication of at least some of theinformation derivable from the web page to the telephone user. Theverbal communication can be accomplished by “playing” a recorded verbalcommunication, or by parsing text from non-text portions of the HTML ofthe web page, and “reading” some or all of the text portions of the webpage to the telephone user using a suitable text-to-speech system.Player systems for recorded verbal communication and text-to-speechsystems are commercially available.

FIG. 4 illustrates the step 56 of FIG. 3. More particularly, FIG. 4illustrates the display/speak option step 56 of the process 50 of thepresent invention. If the telephone 12 has a visual display feature, orif the telephone 12 was being emulated by a personal computer or anInternet Appliance, an option screen 74 is shown on the visual display.However, since most telephones do not have displays capable ofdisplaying screen 74, Internet Interface Computer 26 will instead “read”or “speak” the contents of the option screen 74. This is accomplished aswill be appreciated by those skilled in the art, by a text-to-speechsynthesizer, which are commercially available. More exactly, the step 56of FIG. 3 provides the following greeting when a caller calls in from atelephone:

-   -   “Welcome to SpiffyTalk. Please select from the following        options. One. create a web page. Two. Modify your web page.        Three. Access your web page. Four. Cruise the web. Five. Send        mail. Six. Receive mail.“

Therefore, as will be appreciated from the illustration of FIG. 4, thestep 56 of FIG. 3 will provide a greeting and a numbered menu of optionsfor use by the telephone user. The telephone user can then select one ofthese options by pressing the appropriate touch-tone button on thekeypad of their telephone. For example, if they wish to access their ownweb page, they will press the “3” button on their telephone, and if theywish to “cruise” the web, they will press the “4” button on theirtelephone.

To receive “mail”, button 6 can be pressed on the user's telephone. Theaccess system then retrieved voice mail or e-mail that was designatedfor that user. In the case of voice mail, the message is simply playedto the telephone user. In the case of e-mail, the message can be “read”to the telephone user using a text-to-speech system. It is preferablythat both a user ID and a password be required for access to mail, toensure the security of that mail.

In FIG. 5, the “Create WWW Page” step 60 of FIG. 3 is illustrated ingreater detail. More particularly, process 60 begins at 76 and, in astep 78, the name and a first password (“keyword”) is retrieved from thetelephone user. This name and password can be retrieved in several ways.For example, voice recognition technology can be used to retrieve thename and the password. Alternatively, the name and password can be codedin on the touch tone pad of the telephone 12. For example, the namecould be spelled as follows. If the telephone user's name is “Bob”, the“2” key, which corresponds to the letters “ABC”, can be pressed twice,followed by the “*” key, to indicate the second letter of “ABC”, i.e.“B.” Then, the “6” key, which corresponds to “MNO”, can be pressed threetimes followed by the “*” key to indicate the third letter “O” in thestring “MNO.” Finally, the “2” key can be pressed twice, followed by the“*” key, to indicate “B” again. This would indicate to the computer 26that the name of the user is “BOB.” Other alphanumeric information canalso be entered into the system in this fashion, although special buttonsequences must be provided for the letters “Q” and “Z”, which do notappear on a standard telephone keypad. Numeric information can beentered by simply pressing the button with that number. Therefore, ifthe first password is simply numeric, it can be entered by simply usingthe touch-tone numeric keypad. The first password can also bealphanumeric and entered as explained above.

The present invention also includes a specialized keyboard that emulatesthe DTMF coding described above. The keyboard is either coupled to thetelephone line, or is acoustically coupled to the hand-set of thetelephone, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art. Pressinga key of the keyboard results in the audio encoding of that key in DTMFtones that is transmitted over the telephone line. For example, pressingthe “B” key on the keyboard produces the same pattern of DTMF tones asdescribed above, namely, the tone associated with the “2” key of thetelephone will be made twice, followed by the tone associated with the“*” key of the telephone. These tones can be produced quite rapidly,resulting in little or no delay on the part of the typist. In this way,each of the keys of the keyboard can be encoded in DTMF tones forreceipt by the Internet Interface Computer of the present invention. Byproviding a keyboard that communicates with DTMF tones, expensive modemsand keyboard processors can be eliminated.

Using the name and the first password as entered by, for example, one ofthe above methods, the process creates a World Wide Web (WWW) “homepage” written in HTML and stores it on the Internet Server 28. There aremany commercially available tools for creating WWW pages. The createdhome page is preferably linked to a master home page or “domain homepage” for the service, e.g. the “SpiffyTalk” home page in this example.This is because second level domain names such as “spiffytalk.com” needto be registered on the Internet before they can be used. The firstlevel domain name is “com”, and other first level domain names are, forexample, “gov”, “edu”, “net” for government, educational, and networkentities, respectively. However, this is anticipated to be a commercialservice, so a first level domain name of “com” is consideredappropriate. However, “users” within a domain, such as the hypothetical37 Bob” can have a “home page” as a user of the domain that issubsidiary to the domain home page. For example, Bob can have the homepage “http://www.spiffytalk.com/˜bob/” which does not have to beregistered on the Internet and can be maintained by the Internet Server28 itself. Therefore, a WWW page can be created instantly by a telephoneuser without having to register a name on the Internet using the systemof the present invention. The process is then completed as indicated at82.

In FIG. 6, the “Edit WWW Page” step 62 of FIG. 3 is illustrated ingreater detail. More particularly, process 62 begins at 84 and, in astep 86, it is determined if the correct password has been entered. Ifnot, the process terminates as indicated at 88. If the correct passwordwas provided at step 86, the WWW page is edited in a step 90. Again,editors for WWW pages are commercially available and are well-known tothose skilled in the art.

FIG. 6 a illustrates a World Wide Web user “home page” created by theprocesses of FIGS. 5 and 6. The web page belongs to “Moo-Cow” and isassigned the Internet address http://www.spiffytalk.com/˜moo-cow/. Asmentioned previously, the second level domain names, namely the domainname “spiffytalk.com” needs to be registered on the Internet. However,the domain user name “moo-cow” can be assigned and served by theInternet Server 28 of the present invention. Therefore, a large numberof telephone users can each create their own home pages by calling intothe Telephone-to-Internet access system 16 of the present invention.

The step 80 of FIG. 5 creates the “home page” 92 by placing the name 94retrieved in step 78 into appropriate name slots on the page. In otherwords, everywhere on page 92 that the name “moo-cow” appears, there wasa blank name slot. The step 80 also creates the appropriate user address96 for the user home page 92.

The edit step 90 of FIG. 6 permits the moo-cow passwords such as “cow,”“cattle,” etc. to be entered into the home page to provide passwords forsearching over the Internet. These passwords can be used to index thehome page into lists such as Yahoo!® and Lycos®. If a home page isstarted for a telephone user for “Bob” of the previous example, theprocess of the present invention would produce a home page with the name“Bob” instead of the name “moo-cow” and of course, with a differentaddress 96 and different passwords that “Bob” would select and/or enter.

The home page 92 includes four pre-defined hyperlinks 98, 100, 102, and104. The hyperlink 98 is “About Moo-Cow,” the hyperlink 100 is “Moo-CowPrivate (Requires Password),” hyperlink 102 is “Moo-Cow Communication,”and hyperlink 104 is “Moo-Cow Miscellaneous.” The hyperlink 98 is linkedto a web page that can be created and modified by the telephone userwhich explains the business of the company, or has a biography of anindividual for individual users. The hyperlink 100 is linked to a webpage including private information and functions that requires apassword (i.e. a password #2) for entry. Hyperlink 102 is linked to acommunications web page for moo-cow, where e-mail and voice mail can besent and received, and where the telephone user can have a conversationwith another telephone user over the Internet. This is accomplished byone telephone user or another “posting” themselves onto thecommunications web page, and the other user selecting the posted userfor two-way telephone conferences over the Internet. Software forInternet telephony using personal computers is commercially available.Finally, hyperlink 104 links to a web page for miscellaneous anduser-defined uses.

It should also be noted that the Internet and WWW protocols also supportsound per se. Therefore, instead of entering text into a web page, whichmight have to be subsequently converted to sound with a text-to-speechengine, voices and other sounds can be directly entered into the webpage. In this way, the recorded voices and other sounds can be “playedback” from the web page, either into a telephone or into any computerthat has a web browser capable of supporting sound outputs.

It should be noted that the process of the present invention creates“Voice-Web” pages, where a user needs only use a telephone to create andedit a personal web page. These Voice-Web pages can be accessed by anyweb browser on a personal computer coupled to the Internet. If apersonal computer using, for example, Netscape Navigator opens aVoice-Web page, the visual image (with sounds, if any) can appear on thescreen of the personal computer, and the Voice-Web page can be operatedthe same way as any other web page on the WWW.

FIG. 7 is a flow-diagram illustrating the Internet browser function 66of FIG. 3. In other words, the process 66 of FIG. 7 implements theprocess of steps 68 and/or 70 of FIG. 3. The process 66 begins at 106and, in a step 108, a web browser such as Netscape Navigator with aplug-in of the present invention is started. Netscape Navigator (whichmay also be referred to herein as “Netscape browser”, “Navigator”, orsimply “Netscape”) is commercially available and is also available forfree downloading over the Internet. Next, in a step 110, the UniversalResource Locator or “URL” is provided to the Netscape browser, and theprocess is completed at step 112.

With reference to both FIGS. 7 and 3, in the case of entering atelephone user's own WWW page in a step 68, the URL (“WWW address”) ispreferably http://www.<service provider name>.com/˜<user name>/ If,however, the telephone user wishes to access the World Wide Web for some“browsing” in step 70, the URL is preferably the URL of the serviceprovider, namely http://www.<service provider name>.com. From there, thetelephone user can browse the Internet using any one a number ofavailable search engine such as Yahoo!, Lycos, etc.

With respect to step, the step 108 of FIG. 7 “Activate Netscape WithPlug-In”, it should be noted that Netscape is a convenient platform forthis process 108 since it is currently the most popular Internet“browser” and because it has powerful plug-in capabilities. By “plug-in”it is meant that Netscape allows third party utilities and applicationsto be tightly integrated with the Netscape to enhance and expand itsfunctionality. However, other web browsers having similar capabilitiescan also be used.

Therefore, process 108 will be described in terms ofcommercially-available Netscape Navigator software that provides aninterface to the Internet via the Internet server 28 and a “plug-in” ofthe present invention which expands and enhances the capabilities of theNetscape software. It should be noted that the entire process 108preferably takes place within the Internet Interface Computer 26, i.e.Netscape and the plug-in are preferably running on the computer 26. Theoperation and functionality of Netscape software is well-known to thoseskilled in the art. Also well-known is how to create plug-ins for theNetscape software.

FIG. 8 is a flow-diagram illustrating step 72 of FIG. 3 in greaterdetail. The process 72 begins at 114 and, in a step 116, the Internetaddress and message is retrieved. A step 118 then determines the messagetype. The present invention accepts two types, namely “voice” and“text.” If it is a voice message, a step 120 determines whether itshould be converted to text. If not, a voice attachment is created instep 122. If the voice is to be converted, it is converted by aspeech-to-text converter in a step 124. Again, speech-to-text converters(i.e. voice recognition systems) are commercially available. After thecompletion of steps 122 or 124, or if the message type is “text” asdetermined by step 118, the next step is 126 to create the message withaddress, text, and any voice attachment. The e-mail is then sent overthe Internet in a step 128 and the process is completed at step 130.

As noted previously, the step 73 allows a telephone user to retrievevoice mail and/or e-mail. It will be appreciated that, as a first step,the step 73 will preferably verify the identity of a telephone user(typically using an account and keyword) to ensure that the telephoneuser should be allowed to access the mail. Then, if the mail is voicemail it is simply “played” to the telephone user, preferably utilizing amenu of (DTMF) commands implemented with the telephone keypad, as willbe appreciated by those skilled in the art. If the mail is e-mail, it is“read” to the telephone user utilizing a text-to-speech system, andagain preferably utilizing a menu of commands implemented with thetelephone keypad. Therefore, the computer implemented e-mail retrievalmethod includes: calling from a user telephone to an access computercoupled to a TCP/IP network; providing user identification to saidaccess computer; retrieving e-mail via said access computer that wassent over said TCP/IP network and addressed to said user; and readingsaid e-mail to said user of said user telephone utilizing atext-to-speech system. Preferably the method further includes providingat least one command to the access computer via a DTMF signal developedby the user telephone.

In FIG. 8 a, the step 108 of FIG. 7 “Activate Netscape With Plug-In” isdescribed in greater detail. It should be noted at this point thatNetscape is a convenient platform for this process 108 since it iscurrently the most popular Internet “browser” and because it haspowerful plug-in capabilities. By “plug-in” it is meant that Netscapeallows third party utilities and applications to be tightly integratedwith the Netscape to enhance and expand its functionality. However,other web browsers having similar capabilities can also be used.

Therefore, process 108 will be described in terms ofcommercially-available Netscape Navigator software 132 that provides aninterface to the Internet 18 via the Internet server 28 and a “Plug-in”134 of the present invention which expands and enhances the capabilitiesof the Netscape software 132. It should be noted that the entire process108 preferably takes place within the Internet Interface Computer 26,i.e. Netscape 132 and the plug-in 134 are preferably running on thecomputer 26. Also provided by a combination of hardware and softwarefunctionality on the Internet Interface Computer 26 is a voicerecognition interface 136, DTMF decoding interface 138, and audio outputinterface 140, all of which provide interfaces between the telephone 12and the plug-in 134, and all of which are readily commerciallyavailable.

The operation and functionality of Netscape software 132 is well-knownto those skilled in the art. Also well-known is how to create plug-insfor the Netscape software. The plug-in 134 of the present inventionreceives a hypertext mark-up language (HTML) file 142 from Netscape 132as part of the normal functioning of Netscape 132. A parser 144 parsesthe HTML file into an intermediate file 146 which is input into aconverter 148. The converter uses a text-to-speech engine 150 to converttext from the intermediate file into sound, i.e. the converter 148passes text as indicated at 152 to the text-to-speech engine 150 andreceives in return, corresponding sound as indicated at 154. As notedpreviously, text-to-speech engines are commercially available. Theconverter 148 then creates a “QuickTime Movie File” 146 which, as willbe explained in greater detail subsequently, provides a convenient wayfor linking an audio track to hypertext links. It should be noted herethat the QuickTime Movie File is an example of an audiovisual and linkedhypertext engine, and that there are other commercially availableengines to perform a similar function. The QuickTime Movie File 156 isthen input into a player 158 which can provide audio (i.e. voice andother audio output) to the user of telephone 12 via the audio interface140. Also, the player 158 responds to DTMF tones created by thetelephone 12 and detected by the DTMF interface 138 of computer 26, andmay also be responsive to the spoken word of the user into the telephone12 via voice recognition interface 136 of the computer 26. The player158 sends appropriate commands to Netscape 132 as indicated by arrow160.

In use, the Netscape 132 is used to make a connection to the Internet 18via the Internet Server 28. When an HTML file is received by theNetscape 132 over the Internet, it is passed to the plug-in 134 as HTMLfile 142, where it is parsed by parser 144 into the intermediate file146. The converter 148 converts text to speech and stores it in aconvenient format such as a QuickTime Movie File 158. The player 158then plays the converted HTML file as a spoken message to a user of atelephone 12 via audio interface 140. Concurrently, the player 158 isresponsive to inputs and commands from the user of telephone 12 via DTMFinterface 138 and/or voice recognition interface 136. If a valid commandor input is received by the player 158, the player 158 will put thecommand or input in a proper format and send it to Netscape 132.Netscape 132 will then act upon the commands and input accordingly.

In FIG. 8 b, the process of parser 144 of FIG. 9 will be described ingreater detail. Process 144 begins at 162 and, in a step 164, the HTMLfile 142 is retrieved. Next, in a step 166, the parser process 144 readsfrom the HTML file and, in a step 168, parses the HTML file text using aPerdue Compiler Construction Tool Set (PCCTS) or Yet Another CompilerCompiler (YACC). Both PCCTS and YACC are commercially available. Next,in a step 170, it is determined whether the results of the parsing is“user displayable” text. For example, the parsing of step 168 might findsome “user displayable” text intermixed with graphics, photographs, JavaApplets, etc. which, in the present preferred embodiment, would not beconsidered user displayable text. If step 170 determines that there isuser displayable text, a step 172 “writes” the user displayable text tothe intermediate file 146. If step 170 determines that it is not userdisplayable text, or after step 172 has been completed, a step 174determines if there is a hyperlink embedded in the HTML file 142. Ifthere is a hyperlink, it is written to intermediate file 146. If step174 determines there is no hyperlink, or after the completion of step176 if there is a hyperlink, a decision step 178 determines if an end offile (EOF) has been read from the HTML file 142. If not, process controlis returned to step 166 to continue reading the HTML file. If step does178 does detect the EOF of the HTML file 142, the process 144 iscompleted as indicated at 180.

The parsing process 144 will be explained by way of example with FIGS. 9and 9 a. FIG. 9 is a visual representation of a web page 162 from“Moo-Cow Industries” that was linked to the home page 92 of FIG. 6 a.More particularly, the hyperlink 98 of home page 92 (see FIG. 6A) wasused to access the “about moo-cow” page 162. If a user is using apersonal computer, they would see the visual representation of the webpage as shown. However, since a preferred interface for accessing thisweb page 162 is the telephone 12, the web page 162 must be translated insuch instances, and to the extent possible, into audio information, if atelephone is being used to access the page.

The web page 162 includes first text 164, hyperlinks 166, 168, 170, and172, a graphic 174, and additional text 176. In the present preferredembodiment, the system does not recognize graphics, photographs, andother types of non-text objects, such as the graphic 174. However, in analternate embodiment of the present invention, the system can recognizeat least types of non-objects. For example, the system can recognize anon-text object as a “graphic,” a “photograph,” a “graph,” a “SavaApplet,” etc. and provide a text-like description in its parsing of thatnon-text object. An even more sophisticated embodiment of the presentinvention can provide Neural Network and other techniques to make anidentification of the non-text object such as by providing the textstring “there is a graphical representation of a cow.”

FIG. 9 a illustrates the intermediate file 146 of FIG. 8 a that has beencreated from the HTML file 142 by the parser 144. As noted in FIG. 9 a,the text 164 has been parsed as text, the hyperlinks 166-170 have beenparsed into hyperlinks and text 178, text 176 has been parsed as text,and the hyperlink 172 has been parsed as hyperlink and text 180.Unrecognized objects, such as non-text object 74, is not added to theintermediate file 146. Intermediate file 146 is then ready forconversion from text-to-speech by converter 148

In FIG. 10, an embodiment 56′ for the step 56 of FIG. 3 is illustratedin flow-diagram form. More particularly, the process 56′ begins at 264and, in a step 266, the telephone caller's “caller-ID” is retrieved.This caller-ID can be determined in several ways. Preferably, thecaller-ID is automatically provided by the local telephone system. Agreat many regional telephone systems automatically provide a caller-ID(i.e. the telephone number) of a caller to the recipient of the call.Alternatively, if the caller-ID is not automatically provided by thetelephone system, the user can be prompted to enter their caller-ID.Again, preferably, this will be the user's telephone number. If multipleusers use a single telephone number, an “extension” can be provided tospecify which individual is calling from that telephone number. Forexample, the caller-ID “415-555-1234-33” can be used to indicate thatthe caller is user #33 of the telephone number “1-415-555-1234.” Ofcourse, other forms of caller-ID (such as an arbitrary user number) canbe used alternatively or additionally.

Next, in a step 268, it is determined whether the caller-ID isrecognized. This is determined, for example, by looking up the caller-IDin a database accessed by the Internet Interface Computer 26.Preferably, this database is stored, for example, in disk storage 44 ofcomputer 26. By “recognize” it is meant herein that there is recordassociated with that caller-ID in the database. Other information in therecord can include the passwords, name, address, billing information,etc. of the user. If the caller-ID is not recognized by step 268, a step270 is initiated where the options are displayed and/or spoken to theuser. The process is then completed at 272, and step 58 of FIG. 3 isentered to await a response from the user.

If the caller-ID is recognized by step 268, it is first determined ifthere is an extension associated with the caller-ID. If so, a greetingcan be provided in step 278. For example, if extension “33” of thetelephone number “1-415-555-1234” belongs to “Bob Smith”, the greetingin step 278 can greet Bob Smith with the greeting “Good morning Bob.Good to hear from you! It has been 2 days since your last visit.”

If there is no extension as determined by step 274, or after thegreeting of 278, a step 276 prompts for and then detects the password ofthe user. A suitable prompt is “Please Enter Your Password To Enter YourWorld Wide Web Home Page.” If the correct password is not detected,process control is turned over to step 270. If the proper password isdetermined, the user's WWW page is entered in step 68 (see FIG. 3).

As noted previously, a preferred business model sells advertising timeon the voice browser so that “free” browser service can be provided totelephone users. To accomplish the interleaving of voice advertisingwith the browsing feature of the present invention, a process 280 (seeFIG. 11) of the present invention is used. This process 280 runsconcurrently with the network browser and may form a part of the plug-inof the browser.

As seen in FIG. 11, the process 280 begins at 282 and, in a step 284, aURL is retrieved (e.g. from the telephone user) and then is used toaccess a web page on the WWW. Next, a step 286 predicts the downloadtime of the page corresponding to that URL. This can be accomplished byfirst retrieving the size of the web page being downloaded, i.e. thenumber of bytes that comprises the HTML description of the web page.Netscape allows for such size information retrieval. For example, a webpage with complex graphics or with large Java Applets will be larger andwill take longer to download than a simple text web page. The downloadtime can be predicted by using an “average download rate” (i.e. theaverage number of bytes/second downloaded by the computer) or bydownloading a certain number of bytes from the web page, detecting therate at which those bytes are received (“detected download rate”), andthen calculating the remaining download time using the detected downloadrate.

It should be noted that the speed of downloading will be heavilydependent upon the operating characteristics of the web server hostingthe desired web page, the current “traffic” load on the Internet, thenumber of nodes on the Internet over which the TCP/IP packets of the webpage must traverse, etc. Therefore, the amount of time that the web pagetakes to download can vary depending on the time of day (e.g. prime timeversus non-prime time), the size of the HTML file representing the webpage, the transmission characteristics between the web server and thedownload computer, and a number of other Internet related factors.

After step 286 predicts the download time of the page, i.e. predicts an“advertising timeslot”, the download is initiated in step 288. A step290 then selects one or more advertisements that fits the advertisingtime slot and begins playing those one or more advertisements. Forexample, the Internet interface computer 26 preferably stores a numberof voice advertisements of various lengths, e.g. 5 second, 10 second, 15second, 20 second, etc. If it is determined in step 286 that it willtake 30 seconds to download the WWW page, two 15 second advertisements,or a 20 second and a 10 second advertisement or three 10 secondadvertisements, or six 5 second advertisements can be played during thedownload time. Preferably, the selected advertisements are played intheir entirety, although in an alternative embodiment of the presentinvention, the advertisement are “cut-off” once the web page is fullydownloaded. However, as noted in FIG. 16, a step 292 preferablydetermines if the advertisements are complete and, if not, enters anevent loop waiting for the completion of the advertisements beingplayed.

Once the advertisements have been played, a step 294 determines if thedownload of the web page is complete. If not, an optional step 296 canplay a “filler” such as music, more advertisements, an audio remindersuch as “one moment please, downloading”, etc. Once the download iscompleted as detected by step 294, the process 280 is completed at 298.

In FIG. 12, an alternate preferred embodiment of a system 300 forproviding access to a wide area network includes a number of “feederservers” 302 and a “master server” 304 coupled to the Internet 306.Preferably, one or more feeder servers are provided each telephone areacode (such as area codes “415,” “408,” “510,” etc.), so that user of atelephone 308 incurs minimal toll-charges. Of course, any of thetelephones 308 can call any of the feeder servers 302, but a larger tollcall might be incurred. The feeder servers 302 then communicate with themaster server 304 via the Internet 306.

The arrangement of system 300 reduces toll-charges for users of thetelephones 308. Absent use of the feeder servers 302 of system 300, atelephone caller from a telephone 308 would call directly to the masterserver 304, resulting in possibly large toll-charges (“telephonecharges”). The system 300 is therefore well adapted for business modelswhere it is desirable to minimize the telephone charges incurred by theuser. The system 300 is therefore well adapted for the business modelwhere free Internet access is provided (i.e. the “advertising” model)and also for local 1-976 models where feeder servers must be locatedwithin each “976” operating area or region. On the other hand, a 1-800model or a 1-900 dial-in business model does not need to rely on feederservers 302 (although they could still be used), since the “800” and“900 ” number permit country-wide access to the master server 304.

The master server 304 is the “host” or “home” of a master home page 310of the service. For example, the “SpiffyTalk” home page 310 can beprovided on the master server 304. In addition, a database 312 isconnected to the master server 304 to store such things as a database ofcaller-IDs, URLs, customer information, etc.

FIG. 13 is a flow-diagram illustrating a process 313 running on a feederserver 302. More particularly, the process 313 begins at 314 and, in astep 316, the telephone is answered. The step 318 then “launches” orstarts the browser with its plug-in. A step 320 determines if caller-IDinformation is available. If not, the process 313 then “jumps” to theSpiffyTalk home page in a step 322.

If caller-ID information is available, step 320 turns over processcontrol to step 324 which causes a “jump38 to the SpiffyTalk caller-IDpage. By “jump” it is meant herein that the proper URL is given to theNetscape browser 132 of FIG. 9 to cause the loading of the designatedweb page. Next, a step 326 automatically enters the caller-IDinformation into the caller-ID web page. This caller-ID information isderived, for example, from the telephone system, the user, the database312 of FIG. 17, etc. After the completion of either steps 322 or 326, adecision step 328 determines whether the telephone call is completed. Ifnot, the Internet access continues as indicated at step 330. When thecall is determined to be completed, e.g. by the detection of a hang-upsignal from the telephone or due to an explicit command from thetelephone user the process 313 is competed as indicated at 322.

FIGS. 14 a and 14 b illustrate a sequence of “screens” or web pagesinitiated by the step 322 “Jump To SpiffyTalk Home Page” of FIG. 18. InFIG. 14 a, the telephone user is instructed to enter their password andpress the “#” key or to press the “*” key to browse the Internet. Inother words, the page 334 of FIG. 14 a assumes that “free” Internetbrowsing will be provided as a “first-tier” of service, meaning that nopassword is required. However, if the user wishes to access morefeatures of the Internet (i.e. use a second-tier of service) by paying asubscription fee, a password 336 can be provided.

If the user is calling in from a telephone, the password 336 is providedby pressing the appropriate numeric keys on the telephone to enter thepassword 336, and then pressing the “#” key on the telephone. If,however, the page 334 is accessed by a computer coupled to the Internet,the page 334 is displayed on the computer screen and the password 336can be entered with the keyboard of the computer. The user of a computercoupled to the Internet can press the number (“#”) key 338 or the star(“*”) key 340 by using a pointing mechanism, such as a mouse. Withreference to FIG. 14 b, once the system has determined that a properpassword has been entered into the system, a page 342 requests that thetelephone number, followed by the “#” key, be entered, or that the “*”key be pressed to browse. Again, if a telephone is being used, theinstruction “Please Enter Your Telephone Number And Press The Number KeyOr Simply Press The Star Key To Browse” or the like can be read over thetelephone system, and the telephone number 344 is preferably entered onthe keypad of the telephone. After the telephone number has beenentered, the “#” is pressed on the telephone. If, however, a computersystem provided with a Internet browser is used to access the page 342,the page can appear as shown with a box 346 for the entry of thetelephone number 344. A pointer mechanism, such as a mouse, can then beused to select the number (#”) key 348 or the star (“*”)key 350.

FIG. 15 illustrates a web page 352 as accessed by step 324 of FIG. 13.In this instance, the caller-ID is known as determined by step 320 ofFIG. 13. The caller-ID 354 (e.g. the telephone number) is automaticallyentered into the web page 352. Therefore, in this instance, only thepassword needs to be entered into the “box” 356. If the user is callingin from a telephone, the web page 352 can prompt “Please Enter YourPassword And Press The Number Key Or Simply Press The Star Key ToBrowse” (or the like — see FIG. 15) and the user will key in theirpassword followed by the “#” sign. If the web page 352 is being accessedfrom a computer system using an Internet browser, the web page 352 willbe shown and the keyword can be typed into the box 356. The computeruser can then select the pound (“#”)key 358 or the star (“*”) key 360 byutilizing a suitable pointer mechanism.

In FIG. 16, the method of converter 148 is illustrated. The method 148begins at 142, and in a step 184, the intermediate file 146 isretrieved. Next, in a step 186, a segment of the intermediate file isread. This portion of the intermediate file is parsed again, preferably,using PCCTS in a step 188 and, in a step 190, it is determined whetherthere is user displayable text. If there is user displayable text, astep 192 converts text to speech and other sounds. For example, specialsounds such as “siren ” could be converted either to the sound of thesiren or to the spoken word “siren.” .If a word was to be converted intoa sound, rather into a spoken word, a special identifier such as<sound > can be used as a preference tend to be used as an indicator.For example, “<sound>siren” would make the siren sound, while “sound ”alone would be read as “sound.” Next, in a step 194, the sound iswritten to a QuickTime Movie File or the like.

If step 190 determines that user displayable text is not present, orafter the completion of step 194, a decision step 196 determines whetherthere is a hyperlink. If yes, a step 198 coverts the text portion tospeech sound, the sound is written to a quick time file in a step 200,and the URL is written to the QuickTime Movie File in a step 202. Ifstep 196 determines that there is not a hyperlink, or after thecompletion in step 202, a decision step 204 determines whether an end offile (EOF) has been found in the intermediate file 146. If not, processcontrol is returned to step 186. If an EOF has been found, the processis completed as indicated at 206.

In FIG. 16 a, a QuickTime Movie File 156 is illustrated. As notedpreviously, there are alternatives for QuickTime Movie File whichprovide similar functionality. The QuickTime Movie format operates onMacintosh platforms, and there are equivalent utilities available forother platforms such as “WINTEL” platforms running Intel-typemicroprocessors and Microsoft Windows operating system software. In theillustration of FIG. 16 a,the QuickTime Movie File includes an audiotrack 208 and a “metadata” track 210. Time increases from left to rightin this illustration as indicated by arrow 212. At irregular intervals,the audio track is linked to a hyperlink in the metadata track 210, suchas with hyperlinks 214, 216, and 218. These hyperlinks were written bystep 202 of FIG. 16. Each hyperlink 214-218 is given a reference numberand a URL. For the purpose of this illustration, the entire URL has notbeen written. Also, it should be noted that the reference number can bereassigned, such as with hyperlink 218 having the reference number 4which was reassigned from hyperlink 214. Reassignment is needed becausethere are many more possible hyperlinks than telephone keypad keys. ThisQuickTime Movie File 156 therefore provides a convenient method forlinking an audio track with a metadata track including a number ofhyperlinks. The use and functionality of QuickTime Movie File aredescribed in greater detail in the multi volume set Inside Macintosh,Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.

In FIG. 17, the process of the plug-in 134, under the control of theplayer 158, will be described. The process of 134 begins at 220 and, ina step 222, the player 158 commands Netscape to go to the desired homepage, i.e. the starting home page. Next, in a step 224, the HTML file142 is received from Netscape 132 and, in a step 226, the parser 144converts the HTML file 142 to the intermediate file 146. Step 228converts intermediate file to a QuickTime Movie File 156 with theconverter 148, and the player 158 starts playing the audio track of theQuickTime Movie File in a step 230. The player 158 also processes usercommands retrieved through DTW interface 138 or voice recognitioninterface 136 in a step 232, and the process for that HTML file iscompleted at 234. Alternatively, as indicated at 236, an additional HTMLfile can be retrieved from Netscape in a step 224 and the process can berepeated for this new HTML file.

In FIG. 18, the step 232 of FIG. 17 “Process User Command” is shown ingreater detail. The process 232 begins at 238 and, in a step 240, acommand from the DTMF interface 138 or the voice recognition interface136 is received. If the command is “Rewind” as determined by a step 242,QuickTime Movie Fide 156 is “rewound” to the beginning of the audiotrack in a step 244. If the command is “Forward 10 Seconds” as indicatedby step 246, the audio track on the QuickTime Movie File 156 is advancedby 10 seconds. If the command is to “Go Back 10 Seconds” as detected bystep 250, the audio track is “rewound” 10 seconds on the QuickTime MovieFile 156. If a step 154 indicated that the user wishes to jump to ahyperlink, the URL is looked up in a step 256 and a command is createdin a step 258 for Netscape 132 to jump to the appropriate URL. Processcontrol is then returned to step 224 of FIG. 17 to receive a new HTMLfile from Netscape. If step 260 determines that the user is done (forexample by receiving a “done ” command from the user or by sensing thatthe user has hung-up the telephone), the process is completed asindicated at 262. If the telephone user is not done, process control isreturned to step 240 to retrieve a new command from the user oftelephone 12.

FIG. 19 illustrates a process 362 running on the master server 304 ofFIG. 12. The process 362 begins at 374 and, in a step 366, a “hit”, onthe SpiffyTalk home page 310 (see FIG. 12) is detected. By “hit”, it ismeant herein that the system detects that a web page within its domainis being addressed by an incoming URL. Next, a step 368 retrieves thedata entered into the home page. This retrieval of data was discussedwith reference to FIGS. 14 a, 14 b, and 15. Next, a step 370 “looks up”the appropriate URL corresponding to the data. This URL andcorresponding data is preferably stored in database 312. Next, a step372 determines if a page for the URL exists. If so, Netscape isinstructed to “jump” to the page designated by the URL in a step 374 andthe process is complete at 376. If a web page for that URL does notexist, a “stub” page is created by the process 362 of the presentinvention. A “stub” page is simply a subsidiary page created on themaster server 304 for a specific, and usually temporary, purpose. A“stub” page can be created, for example, as a subsidiary page of a userpage. After the creation of the stub page in step 378, process controlis directed to step 374 to cause Netscape or the like to jump to thepage. Again, the process is complete at 376.

While this invention has been described in terms of several preferredembodiments, there are alterations, permutations, and equivalents whichfall within the scope of this invention. It should also be noted thatthere are may alternative ways of implementing both the process andapparatus of the present invention. However, such modifications willbecome readily apparent to those skilled in the art after studyingpreceding descriptions and studying the drawings. It is thereforeintended that the following appended claims be interpreted asencompassing all such alterations, permutations, and equivalents as fallwithin the true spirit and scope of the present invention.

1. A voice web browser system comprising: a telephone; an access systemcoupled to a TCP/IP network, said TCP/IP network comprising a pluralityof nodes, said TCP/IP network providing access to web pages stored oncomputer systems coupled to said TCP/IP network, said web pagescomprising HTML code that can be transmitted via TCP/IP packets to saidaccess system over said TCP/IP network, said access system being able toreceive said TCP/IP packets and to parse said HTML code into text andnon-text portions; memory coupled to said access system includingcomputer executable instructions for: (a) retrieving a web page via anetwork browser including a parser, a converter and a player; (b)selecting at least one audio advertisement; and (c) playing saidselected at least one audio advertisement to a user of said telephone; atelephone system coupling said telephone to said access system forinteractive communication with said access system; and a text-to-speechsystem associated with said access system for reading at least some ofsaid text to a user of said telephone.
 2. A voice web browser system asrecited in claim 1 wherein said telephone is a touch-tone telephone, andwherein said access system can be provided with commands in the form ofDTMF signals.
 3. A voice web browser system as recited in claim 1further comprising a speech recognition system responsive to spokencommands from said telephone user and operative to provide operationalcommands to said access system.
 4. A voice web browser system as recitedin claim 1 wherein said access system consists of a unitary computersystem.
 5. A voice web browser system as recited in claim 1 wherein saidaccess system comprises an interface computer system coupled to saidtelephone user by said telephone system, and a server system couplingsaid interface computer system to said TCP/IP network.
 6. A voice webbrowser as recited in claim 1 wherein said access system is responsiveto commands from said telephone user for navigating both within a webpage and between web pages of said TCP/IP network.
 7. A computerimplemented process for obtaining web page information over a TCP/IPnetwork comprising: implementing a connection of a telephone user to anaccess system that is coupled to a TCP/IP network; detecting a selectionof at least one navigation command by said telephone user to access aweb page accessible over said TCP/IP network; and navigating over saidTCP/IP network to said web page in response to said navigation command,resulting in a verbal communication of at least some informationderivable from said web page to said telephone user; selecting at leastone audio advertisement; and playing said at least one selected audioadvertisement to said telephone user.
 8. A computer implemented processas recited in claim 7 further comprising making an initial verbalcontact with said telephone user after implementing a connection.
 9. Acomputer implemented process as recited in claim 8 wherein said initialverbal contact includes providing a plurality of options to thetelephone user.
 10. A computer implemented process as recited in claim 9wherein said plurality of options includes navigating the TCP/IP networkand the sending or receiving of e-mail.
 11. A computer implementedprocess as recited in claim 10 wherein said plurality of options furtherincludes creating a web page on said TCP/IP network.
 12. A computerreadable media encoded with the computer implemented process of claim 7.13. A voice web browser comprising: connection means for implementing aconnection of a telephone user to an access system that is coupled to aTCP/IP network; means for detecting a selection of at least onenavigation command by said telephone user to access a web pageaccessible over said TCP/IP network; means for navigating over saidTCP/IP network to said web page in response to said navigation command,resulting in a verbal communication of at least some informationderivable from said web page to said telephone user; means for selectingat least one advertisement; and means for playing said at least oneselected advertisement.
 14. A voice web browser as recited in claim 13further comprising means for making an initial verbal contact with saidtelephone user after implementing a connection.
 15. A voice web browseras recited in claim 13 wherein said means for making an initial verbalcontact includes means for providing a plurality of options to thetelephone user.
 16. A voice web browser as recited in claim 12 furthercomprising means for creating a web page accessible via said TCP/IPnetwork.
 17. A method for retrieving e-mail that was sent over a TCP/IPnetwork comprising: calling by a user from a user telephone to an accesscomputer coupled to a TCP/IP network; providing user identification bysaid user to said access computer; playing an audio advertisement tosaid user over said user telephone under the control of said accesscomputer; receiving an indication at said access computer that said userwould like to have e-mail that was transmitted over said TCP/IP networkread via a text-to-speech process and; reading said e-mail as retrievedby said access computer to said user utiliziing a text-to-speech system.18. A method for retrieving e-mail as recited in claim 17 furthercomprising providing at least one command to said access computer via aDTMF signal developed by said user telephone.
 19. A computer readablemedia encoded with software instructions and data to implement themethod of claim
 17. 20. A system for retrieving e-mail that was sentover a TCP/IP network comprising: an access computer means coupled to aTCP/IP network, said access computer means being accessible by a uservia a user telephone; means for providing user identification to saidaccess computer means; means for retrieving e-mail via said accesscomputer means that was sent over said TCP/IP network and addressed tosaid user; means for selecting at least one advertisement; means forplaying said at least one selected advertisement; and means for readingsaid e-mail to said user of said user telephone.